Meet Andrew Hall

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andrew Hall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andrew below.

Andrew, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?

Optimism is a muscle that can be grown and developed!

For me, there are two big pieces / keys:

1) Foundation in gratitude and stoiciscm.

I studied the principles of “The Original Position” by John Rawls, and the reminders from family and friends that we’re just so lucky to be living in the time and place that we are and surrounded by support and tools we need for success. The original position explores the fact that if we were removed from our world and given the chance to change how the rules worked, we’d make the world very different if we knew that we could be born back into any place, time, and body. To know that you might not have the same fortune you were born into, you would design a much more equitable world to make sure you’d still have a chance at a happy life when you returned. With all this in mind, I know that I got such a beneficial and fortunate head start.

Then, I studied stoicism – including Ryan Holiday’s books and “A Guide to the Good Life – the Ancient Art of Stoic Joy” by William Braxton Irvine. Through the basic exercises of Stoicism, we learn to be grateful of current circumstances but unattached to them. To work to progress in life without wanting for more. To know that everything we have is “on loan” from fortune, and will one day be returned. To imagine great difficulties in life and remember how sweet life is without those difficulties. To find pleasure in the simplest things in the present moment.

Building up these mindsets over time sets up our foundation for optimism.

If you consider that happiness = reality minus expectations, or that happiness = what you have divided by what you want, then being so grateful for what you already have brings happiness. If you’re happy with what you already have, is easier to be optimistic about the future. Especially if you don’t attach your happiness to some other “optimal” state.

2) Optimal situations can be manifested

To be optimistic is to (gently) expect that good things will happen.

A few concepts here:

– Optimism is self-fulfilling. One who believes bad things will happen is more likely to come upon them. Optimists will reflect their optimism into the world and more opportunities will find them. They’ll be more likely to build surface area for luck to land on.

– The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do. You can only manifest a future that you can truly believe can happen, and thus your imagination represents the boundaries of your opportunity. Optimists have bigger boundaries for success.

– Optimism is in the eye of the beholder. An optimist who doesn’t get what they wanted is more likely to find the positive in the negative result than a pessimist is. Consider how the pessimist will say “I knew it would fail” and the optimist might say “what good came of this?” or “maybe if we aren’t where we wanted to be, it’s not over yet.”

These ideas point to the self-reflexive nature of optimism.

Whether you think you can, or think you can’t … either way you’re right.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Professionally, I’m focused on building my company “No Story Lost”. We interview your family members and turn their life story into a beautiful coffee table book. Our company is a few years old and we’re growing quickly and have the honor of capturing some amazing people’s stories.

I also coach entrepreneurs and help them be happier and get more of what they want. I coach one person at a time and am currently helping a client wrestle with confidence and trust while building a social network.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Subject Matter Expertise
Patience
Perseverance

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?

No Story Lost is always looking for partners who can help us reach families who deserve to have their stories recorded. Whether you work in senior care, health care, estate planning, or another related field… if your clients have great stories, we’d love to partner with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nostorylost.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/nostorylost

Image Credits

Courtesy of No Story Lost